LHS girls win tournament opener, boys fall to Atchison

Tonganoxie  The Lansing High girls have a place in the winner's bracket of the Tonganoxie Invitational Tournament for the first time in coach Keith Andrews' three-year tenure.

Sophomore Brittney Lang scored a game-high 15 points and freshman Amy Briggs added 14 as Lansing rallied for a 45-40 victory against Jefferson County West on Monday afternoon at the newly renovated Tonganoxie High School gymnasium.

Lansing (3-6) owned a 23-14 lead with 2:27 left in the second quarter, but it began forcing three-pointers, missed some open looks and gave up a 9-0 run to end the half.

Jeff West took a 27-23 lead in the third quarter before Lang and Briggs nailed three-pointers and put the Lions back on top. The game later was tied at 36-36 with 3:35 left in the fourth quarter, but a free throw from Katie Nietzke and six straight swishes from the charity stripe by Briggs allowed them to put the game away.

The LHS girls next play at 3 p.m. Friday in the championship semifinals against Eudora. Eudora squeaked past Atchison, 56-52, in the first round.

Atchison 46, Lansing 39

The Lansing High boys went toe-to-toe with top-seed Atchison on Monday in the first round of the Tonganoxie Invitational Tournament, but the No. 5-ranked Redmen capitalized on a few mistakes and missed shots by the Lions and pulled away in the final minutes for a seven-point victory.

Lansing (2-7) forced the game to be played at a crawl, and that worked to the Lions' favor. Although they shot poorly in the first half, they trailed just 10-9 with 2:27 left before halftime. Three straight turnovers allowed the Redmen to extend their lead to 16-11 by intermission.

Atchison opened up a six-point lead two minutes into the third quarter, but Lansing responded with a 6-0 run that was capped by Stephen Didde's layup. LHS took the lead three times in the quarter. The first came on a baseline jumper by Will Johnson. The other two came on back-to-back strong post moves by Cody Rush. The second of Rush's big buckets sent the Lions into the fourth quarter with a 27-26 lead.

The Lions kept things close throughout the fourth quarter and trailed just 41-37 with 48 seconds left, but they never reclaimed the lead.

Rush and Jeff Jackson led Lansing with eight points apiece.

The LHS boys next play at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the consolation semifinals against the loser of Tuesday's game between Silver Lake and Immaculata.

For more on the Lansing boys and girls games, pick up the Jan. 18 edition of The Current.